Jazz Jackrabbit 2
'Jazz Jackrabbit 2 ' produced by Epic MegaGames, now known as Epic Games was released in 1998 for PCs running Windows, and later for Macintosh computers. It is the sequel to Jazz Jackrabbit. Story When we last left our hero, Jazz had rescued Princess Eva Earlong from the clutches of the dastardly Devan Shell, foiling the maniacal turtle’s plan to take control of the planet Carrotus. In gratitude, the rabbit king and queen made Jazz a prince and granted him Eva’s hand in marriage. Unfortunately, as the cliché goes, it’s darn hard to keep a criminally insane turtle down for long. Especially one who makes sure to always have a backup diabolical plot in the wings in case his primary diabolical plot is thwarted by some do-gooder superhero. With an appalling disregard for wedding etiquette, Devan and his goons crashed Jazz and Eva’s royal wedding reception, swiped Eva’s 12-carrot diamond wedding ring, and fled. Enraged at her new son-in-law’s failure to defeat Devan once and for all, and socially humiliated by the trashing of her daughter’s wedding, the rabbit queen had Jazz thrown into the palace dungeon. Now, having used the diamond from Eva’s ring to complete his top-secret time machine, Devan is racing back in time to rewrite a more turtletically correct version of history - one without rabbits! It’s up to Jazz, along with his spaced-out little brother, Spaz, to escape from the palace dungeon, catch up to Devan and stop him before he turns history on its ear. Gameplay Just like its predecessor, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is a 2D side-scroller that incorporates elements of shooting and platforming. The player must venture through a series of levels populated with enemies and environmental hazards that may hinder the player's progress. The player's goal is to reach the level's exit, usually indicated by an exit sign, whilst overcoming obstacles and hazards through the use of running and jumping as well as removing enemies and obstructions through the use of shooting and stomping. The Player is given a selection of characters to choose from, namely, Jazz, Spaz, and eventually (in the subsequent expansions) Lori. Each character has certain traits that are exclusive to each other. For an example, Jazz can launch himself vertically higher than others, Spaz can double jump, and Lori can dash across the screen whilst eliminating almost any enemy or obstacle in her path. Each Character is equipped with a gun that can fire an inexhaustible supply of projectiles in a straight manner. During the course of the game, however, the player can encounter additional ammunition that can provide the player with greater fire-power and range but with limiting ammo. These ammo types can result in different effects from flamethrowing to firing ice shards (that freezes almost any enemy or object on contact). In addition to ammo, players will usually come across certain items and power-ups to aid the player. Some of these may include a 1-up (that gives the player an extra life), a massive variety of food (when enough is collected gives the player a short period of invincibility in the form of a "sugar rush"), a variety of diamonds (when enough is collected gives the player an extra life), a carrot (that boosts the player's health), and a bird in a cage (once it is liberated by the player will follow the player around and will automatically fire at any nearby enemy). Players can also participate in multiplayer. The game's Splitscreen mode supports up to 4 players, where as the Online mode can support up to 32. The game also has a local TCP/IPX network support. In Multiplayer there are five game types that players could participate in, namely, Cooperative (where players could work together in the game's single player campaign), Battle (which is basically Deathmatch), Race (in which the first to complete all laps wins the race), Treasure Hunt (in which the first to collect 100 diamonds and find the exit wins the match), and Capture the Flag. Jazz Creation Station Jazz Jackrabbit 2 has a bundled level editor called Jazz Creation Station (often shortened to JCS), allowing players to create their own levels. However JCS is not available for Mac users or shareware editions. Weapons * Blaster: The most basic weapon. * Bouncer: Shoots a bullet which bounces on the floor. * Frostbiter: Freezes enemies. * Missile Launcher: Shoots homing missiles. * RF Missile: Shoots two missiles in a "V" pattern. * Toaster: Shoots a stream of fire. * TNT: Sets up a bomb which detonates after some time. * Pepper Spray: Shoots a spray of bullets in close-range. * Electro-Blaster: Shoots a plasma bolt. Stages Gallery JJ2AustraliaCover.jpg|Australia Cover JJ2IsraelCover.jpg|Israel Cover Trivia *The game detects your computer power and shows the intro in low or high resolution. *A sequel to this game, entitled Jazz Jackrabbit 3 was to be released sometime in 2000. However, since Epic was unable to find a publisher, the project was cancelled. *The full UK CD version of this game installs as version 1.21. Also on the CD is a folder called 'Shareware' which contains shareware versions of the following games: **Fire Fight by Chaos Works **Jazz Jackrabbit Episode 1 plus Xmas **Tyrian Shareware version 2.0 **Extreme Pinball : the Rock Fantasy table **7th Legion *In the ending cutscene of Jazz Jackrabbit 2, there is a bucktoothed female rabbit who Spaz has a crush on. She is actually Lori in prototype form. She was supposed to be Spaz's girlfriend, but Project 2 Interactive mentioned that Lori was the lost sister of Jazz and Spaz, and also because her creator, Dean Dodrill, wanted Lori to be a playable character, her role was changed and now she is Jazz's sister instead of Spaz's girlfriend. *The Dopefish (from id Software's Commander Keen series) is mentioned on a signpost in the stage "A Diamondus Forever". The sign reads "Spaz ate the Dopefish". *Spaz, Jazz's younger brother in the game, was actually the result of a joke. During JJ2's development it was full of bugs, and one day artist Nick Stadler was so frustrated by the game that he sketched a parody of Jazz on paper, underlined with the words "SPAZ SLACKRABBIT." The drawing was so amusing to the JJ2 development team that Spaz was eventually added to the game as a full-blown character. External Links * Official Site (web archived) * GOG store page * Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online